The history nobody knew

By Ye Jun (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-22 14:13

Ge Shuya talks with Esther Po, a Burmese nurse who won the Bronze Star Medal from the American Army and who claims to have saved more Chinese than people from other countries in the War. Chen Zhiwen

Ge Shuya, a Yunnan-based expert on World War II history, spent more than 20 years studying the Stilwell Road, referred to in the West as Burma Road and Ledo Road. It was not until recently, though, that he was able to set foot at the starting point in Ledo, India.

"It is 60 years since the War and we haven't found any written records of Chinese people investigating war relics in India," Ge says.

Ge and a journalist from China National Geography magazine became the first Chinese to visit Ledo, a small town in Assam. They also visited Ramgarh, where American general Joseph Stilwell (1883-1946) trained and equipped the Chinese army to fight against the Japanese in 1945.

The National Cemetery in Tengchong, Yunnan province, honors some 8,000 Chinese and American soldiers who died recovering the city from Japanese troops in 1945. Courtesy of Ge Shuya

The Burma Road, spanning 1,154 km from Kunming, Yunnan province in Southwest China to Lashio, Burma, was China's only lifeline for international supplies during China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45). It took 200,000 people 10 months to finish the road's Chinese section in Aug 1938, and as many as 2,300 laborers lost their lives in the process.

In 1942, the Japanese overran Burma and cut off the road, forcing the Allies to set up the Hump Route, a very dangerous, temporary aerial route over the Himalayas.

At the same time, the Allies started building the Ledo Road and linked it with the part of Burma Road in northern Burma which the Allies regained in 1945.

As a token of appreciation, the Chinese government named the Burma and Ledo roads, a total of 1,736 km, Stilwell Road after general Stilwell who was commander of all American forces in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II.

"Ledo appeared exactly the same as when the Allied troops were here 60 years ago," says Ge. Cattle still strolled on roads, peddlers slept in primitive roadside shacks, and electric poles made from oil tubes and rail tracks still stood.

At Ramgarh, a small town 350 km northwest of Calcutta, Ge and his companion reached the cemetery of the China Expedition Army in the World War II. There were a total of 573 tombs.

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